REGION: Tri-City faces competition to serve inmates

Official says hospital confident investment not wasted

Tri-City Medical Center is no longer the only hospital in San
Diego County with a contract to serve inmates from the Richard J.
Donovan Correctional Facility near Otay Mesa.

Nancy Kincaid, director of communications for California Prison
Healthcare Services, said Thursday the agency has signed a new
contract with Alvarado Hospital in San Diego.

She said the prison will now use both hospitals to serve inmates
who need inpatient medical care that can't be provided at the
prison.

It's unknown what the change will mean for Tri-City, which has
been pursuing new ways to make money since a nearby doctor's group
began referring patients to Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas
in 2009.

All along, state prison officials have refused to estimate the
value of the system's health-care contracts. In January, Kincaid
said Donovan has, on average, eight patients in the hospital at any
given time.

Kincaid said Thursday inmates will still be treated at Tri-City,
but said she couldn't provide an estimate of how many patients that
might be in comparison to Alvarado.

Geography seems to favor the San Diego hospital ---- Alvarado is
only about 23 miles from Donovan, while Tri-City is about 60 miles
away ---- but Kincaid said there are other factors to consider,
like the types of services provided by each hospital, and their
cost.

"We are also committed to having competition in the
marketplace," Kincaid said.

On Jan. 1 the prison severed its previous agreement with
Alvarado, saying that the hospital intended to charge too much for
its services. The prison health care system instead signed a deal
with Tri-City and said inmates would be taken to the Oceanside
hospital for care.

Kincaid said that Alvarado has since offered a new contract with
cheaper rates.

Meanwhile, Tri-City has dedicated an entire floor in an older
part of the hospital as a secure inmate ward.

Kelli Moors, a spokesperson for Tri-City, said Thursday she
wasn't sure exactly how much the hospital spent to create the ward,
but added it was "far less" than the maximum of $300,000 that
Tri-City Chief Executive Officer Larry Anderson can spend without
first needing approval from the hospital's board of directors.

Moors said hospital administrators don't think the investment
was wasted because Alvarado is back in the mix.

"We're very confident they are going to keep sending us patients
that match our services," Moors said, adding that Tri-City's
contract with the prison system was never exclusive.

Kincaid said figures were not available on how many prison
patients have gone to each hospital since the prison system signed
a new deal with Alvarado.

But she added that Tri-City is still seen by the prison system
as a valuable location because of its new secure unit, because of
the range of services it offers and because of its tele-medicine
capabilities, which can allow doctors to conduct follow-up visits
with prisoners without requiring the patient to be transferred back
to the hospital.

She added that the prison system will decide where to send
individual inmates, based on the rates that each hospital charges.
If the cost of transporting and treating a patient at Tri-City is
less than it is at Alvarado, that patient will probably go to
Tri-City.